----Are you kidding me??---McCain chaired the Commerce Committee??---

[1corona4u]

I heard something he said this morning, and I was like, whaa?? So I looked it up, and sure enough, he did chair the Commerce Committee, from 1997-2004!! In the event some don't know what they do, here is a description;

The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is composed of 23 Senators and led by Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Vice Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who assumed their positions in January 2007.

Under their leadership, the Committee is composed of 7 Subcommittees, which together oversee for the vast range of issues under its jurisdiction. These issues range from communications, highways, aviation, rail, shipping, transportation security, merchant marine, the Coast Guard, oceans, fisheries, climate change, disasters, science, space, interstate commerce, tourism, consumer issues, economic development, technology, competitiveness, product safety, and insurance.


Now, this is amazing. He can't/won't use a computer,(communications/technology)he said he is not knowledgeable about economic issues??

WTF?

[bdamomma]

1. didn't he say he didn't know about economic issues.

flip flop.

[1corona4u]

3. I just think this is....

amazing. Why on earth would he have been the chair? That's a bit like having a caveman build the space shuttle. :eyes:
(no offense to cavemen)

[Supersedeas]

4. so what was he doing there -- other than catering to big wheels and fat cats??

that kind of catering apparently takes very little business acumen

[blondeatlast]

2. He invented the Blackberry, though--according to his own campaign advisors!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7084094

In the Reagan era, the Commerce Committee (which he was then only a member of) also oversaw banking and real estate, too. Think about that for a while...

[1corona4u]

5. Yeah.....

I find it disturbing, obviously, after the fact, but I can't wrap my head around him saying that about the economy...he's just a moron.

[On the Road]

6. That's Paradise for Lobbying Groups

They can provide the most preposterous reasoning for everything on their wish list, and McCain will just swallow it hook, line, and sinker. He doesn't have the background to make a reasonable decision.

But the commerce committe is a good place to look for McCain missteps. Hasn't been in the news much so far.

[1corona4u]

7. Well, here's where I found some stuff..

McCain's Committees

McCain Pledged Not to Investigate Republican Colleagues for Their Illegal or Unethical Behavior. John McCain's Indian Affairs Committee hearings failed to go after federal lawmakers who benefited from Jack Abramoff's lobbying. "McCain said his committee continues to examine all the financial angles of where the $82 million ended up, as well as other political and charitable contributions the tribes made at Abramoff's request. But he reiterated that he was following the money trail, not the legislative actions taken by Members of Congress. 'We stop when we find out where the money went,' he said."

McCain's Conduct as Chairman of Senate Commerce Committee Questioned. According to the Washington Post, "McCain's conduct as chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee between 1997 and 2004 has occasionally raised questions."

"In 2003 and 2004, for example, McCain took two actions favorable to Cablevision, the cable TV company, while Davis, his chief political strategist at the time, solicited the company for a total of $200,000 for the Reform Institute, a tax-exempt group that advocated an end to outsize political donations. Davis solicited an initial donation from Cablevision chief Charles Dolan a week after Dolan testified before the Senate Commerce Committee in favor of a position backed by McCain. Davis said there was no connection between the testimony and the solicitation. Less than a year later, McCain wrote to the Federal Communications Commission recommending Cablevision's position on cable pricing, citing Dolan by name. Cablevision followed soon thereafter with a second $100,000 donation, the Associated Press reported."
"In 1999, McCain wrote a letter as committee chairman on behalf of longtime political supporter Lowell 'Bud' Paxson, urging the FCC to vote on a long-delayed decision whether to approve the sale of a Pittsburgh television station to Paxson's company. McCain had flown on Paxson's corporate jet four times to appear at campaign events around that time, and had received $20,000 from campaign donations from Paxson and its law firm, the Boston Globe reported. The FCC chairman at the time, William Kennard, called McCain's intervention 'highly unusual,' but the senator denied doing any favors."

http://www.democrats.org/a/2008/02/lobbyist-expres.php

[1corona4u]

8. And this;

McCain Hates Pork, Just Not His Own

McCain Fights Other's Pork, Pushes His Own. "Arizona Sen. John McCain is sponsoring two interesting pieces of legislation. One mounts a direct assault on congressional earmarks, those little morsels of home district pork that lawmakers slip into unrelated spending bills. The other steers $10 million to the University of Arizona to launch an academic center honoring the late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Yes, McCain does seem to be saying to himself: Stop me before I sin again. McCain and co-sponsor Jon Kyl, Arizona's other GOP senator, insist their pork proposal isn't hypocritical because they aren't trying to hide anything. It is set out in stand-alone legislation to be vetted on its own merits. In Congress, it seems, the only bad pork projects are those sponsored by somebody else."

McCain Broke His Own Pork-Barrel Spending Rules. "After years of crusading against 'pork-barrel' spending projects in Congressional appropriations bills, Senator McCain may be breaking his own rules. McCain pushed for, and got, $14.3 million for Arizona's Luke Air Force Base inserted into the just-completed fiscal 2004 military construction appropriations conference report. The only problem is the project to acquire more land near the base was not requested.

McCain's Chief Fundraiser Earned $3.9 Million for Creating $40 Million in Federal Pork. McCain's new Presidential campaign consigliere, and chief fundraising strategist, Tom Loeffler, founder of Loeffler Group has spent much of the last decade as a lobbyist. According to documents filed with the Secretary of the Senate, Loeffler and his associates have collected $3,920,000 over the years lobbying for the Texas cities of San Antonio, Houston, Pharr, Donna and Mercedes. In return, according to Citizens Against Government Waste, the cities received $40 Million and possibly more in Federal Government pork.

(from the same page)

[On the Road]

9. The Abramoff Stuff is Great

it directly undercuts McCain's theme of reform, which is just about the only thing he has going.